1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for simultaneously managing configuration data required to switch operations of the image forming apparatus and a processing method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus which stores configuration data required to switch its operations is known. Since the configuration data is stored in a storage device included in each image forming apparatus, settings as many as the number of image forming apparatuses have to be made so as to change the configuration data of all the image forming apparatuses.
To save these steps, a technique for simultaneously setting configuration data of a plurality of image forming apparatuses from a given information processing apparatus is known. Also, a technique for allocating configuration data at a location where this data can be referred to via a network, and simultaneously managing the configuration data when a plurality of image forming apparatuses refer to the configuration data is available (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-130838).
Also, upon referring to setting data via a network, in order to reduce the load on that processing, for example, a technique for synchronizing setting data at a pre-set time is available (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-033706).
However, the above related art cannot be applied to configuration data, values of which are restricted under the influences of models of image forming apparatuses, hardware options included in the image forming apparatuses, and the like. Also, as for data synchronization, user's operations or jobs executed on a device may contend against the setting data synchronization processing.